Sheet feeder mechanism



April 15, 1952 J RAPP HAL 2,592,822

' SHEET FEEDER MECHANISM Filed May 27, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS. [Yard J April 35, 1952 E. J. RAPP ETAL 2,592,822

SHEET FEEDER MECHANISM Filed May 27, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INV TORS. EQJ'ZJ y Harold/Z 0 2 57.; 25 32M April 15, 1952 E. J. RAPP ETAL 2,592,322

SHEET FEEDER MECHANISM Filed May 27, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 I I a: h IE! l --69 BY JYardaizZComfiZ; 94 @(QE) 5 flaw/ m Patented Apr. 15, 1952 SHEET FEEDER MECHANISM Earl J. Rapp and Harold R. Coon, Sn, Toledo, Ohio, assignors to Lynch Package Machinery gorporation, Toledo, Ohio, a corporation of hio Application May 27, 1946, Serial No. 672,609

' 6 Claims. (01. 271-23) This invention relates to sheet feeder mechanism, and particularly to mechanism for feeding separate sheets of paper, parchment, cellophane or other sheet material to a wrapping machine, for example.

It is an object of the invention to provide a novel sheet feeding mechanism which feeds one sheet of material at a time from a stack of sheet material.

It is another object of the invention to provide an intermittent drive for some parts of the sheet feeding mechanism, so that individual sheets may be marked or perforated at a time when they are not in motion; and further to provide a novel continuous drive for other parts of the mechanism with timed picking of individual sheets of material. p g

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel gear arrangement for a sheet feeder mechanism.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a positive means for preventing the picking of more than one sheet of material at a time from a stack of sheets in a sheet feeder mechanism.

It is another object of the invention to provide an improved picking mechanism for sheet material; and, furthermore, to provide for freewheeling picker rolls to prevent accidental tearing of the sheet material as it is picked up by continuously rotating feed rolls.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a construction wherein the adhesion between the bottom sheet of material and the next sheet in the stack is minimized.

With these and other objects in view, our in= vention consists in the construction, arrange ment' and combination of the various parts of our device whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in our claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the sheet feeder mechanism with the gear casing shown in section;

Figure 2is an elevational view of the. mechanism looking at the end thereof adjacent the stack of sheet material;

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic view of the gear and drive arrangement for the sheet feeder mechanism; and

Figure 4 is a detail view of the perforator utilized with the sheet feeding mechanism.

Referring specifically to the drawing for a detailed description of the invention, numeral ll designates legs for supporting a bed plate [2 on which a sheet feeding mechanism is mounted. The sheet feeding mechanism comprises a main frame I3 which supports the various shafts and gears hereinafter described in detail, and gear casings l4 and I5 at opposite sides of the mechanism.

Also mounted on the main frame are a plurality of spaced supporting rods It for a stack of sheet material 11, shown broken away for the sake of clarity in Figures 1 and 2. Single sheets of material being fed or about to be fed by the mechanism are shown in Figure 1 and designated by numeral l8. Four angular upright corner members 19 confine the stack of sheets I! and provide supports for the rear corner thereof, and

are supported on members 2|.

A main feed mechanism comprising a solid lower roll 23 and an upper roll 24 are disposed intermediate the horizontal extent of the rods .16 and are suitably journalled on the frame l3. The upper roll 24 is divided into a plurality of sections as best shown in Figure 2. The sections of roll 24 are preferably covered with a friction material, such as rubber.

A perforator, generally indicated at 25, is positioned at the edge of the sheet, beyond the rolls 23 and 24 and a second set of feed rolls 26 and 21, similar to those shown at 23 and 24, are positioned to feed individual sheets l8 between a plurality of curved guide members 28, each comprising a pair of spaced fingers 29. The sections of roll 21 are also covered with friction material. Pairs of contacting vertically spaced upper and lower rolls 3| and 32, respectively, feed the individual sheets I8 through the guides 28 and deliver them to a position for wrapping an article 33 shown in Figure 1, such as a print of butter, a ram 34 being shown diagrammatically for moving the article 33 to a mechanism (not shown) for folding the sheet 18 around the article 33.,

Two horizontally spaced picker rolls 35 and 36 extend slightly above the level of the rods 16 and are suitably journalled in frame [3. The picker rolls 35 and 36 are preferably formed of smooth metals, and as shown in Figure 3, are provided with segmental blocks 31 and 38, respectively, of friction material, such as soft rubber.

A needle type sheet retaining device generally indicated at 39, and including a rotating needle 4|, prevents movement of more than the bottom sheet [8 of the stack ll, since the needle 4| extends above the plane of the rods [6 and bores into a number of sheets in the stack H. The sheet retainer 39 is disposed adjacent the outer edge of the bottom of the stack Hand is suitably supported from the frame I3. It is rotated by bevel gears 52 driven by a shaft 43 in a manner hereinafter described.

Turning now to a description of the driving means for the various rolls, perforator and sheet retainer, a main vertical drive shaft 44 is rotated from a source of power (not shown) and rotates a pair of bevel gears 55, which in turn rotates a main shaft 46. The main shaft has two driving gears 41 and 48 secured thereto, and a clutch mechanism, generally indicated at '59 and manually operable through a lever i, is interposed between the bevel gears 45 and gears 47 and #8, so that the entire mechanism disclosed may be stopped and started at will without afiecting the operation of the entire packaging machine with which such sheet feeding mechanism is usually associated. The lever 5I operates a shifting mechanism, generally indicated at 5Ia for operating the clutch 49. Since the clutch mecha 'nism per se forms no part of the present inven= tion, further description is dispensed with.

The gear 48 drives a smaller gear 52, which, in turn, drives a large gear 53 loosely journalled on a shaft 54. The picker roll 35 is secured to shaft 54. An axially extending pin 55 is secured to the shaft 54 and is freely engaged by a longitudinally extending pin 56 secured to the inner face of gear 53. As pin 56 is rotated by gear 53, it engages pin '55 and rotates roll 35 with its shaft 54. However, roll 35 with pin 55 and shaft 54 may rotate ahead of gear 53 and pin 55, for a purpose hereinafter described.

Gear 53 rotates a small gear 57, which in turn rotates a large gear 53 loosely journalled on a shaft 59. The picker roll 35 is secured to shaft '59,, which shaft is supported in suitable bearings. The roll 36 is rotated in a manner similar to roll 35, that is, an axial pin 62 is secured to the roll shaft 59 and is engaged by a longitudinally ex tending pin 63 secured to the inner face of gear 58. vAs gear 58 rotates, therefore, pin 63 engages pin 62 and roll 38 and shaft 59 are, in turn, rotated, it being possible for roll 36 and shaft 53 to rotate ahead of gear 53 and pin 53.

Gear .53, which rotates gear 57, also drives an idler gear 56, which in turn drives a small gear 5| fastened to the shaft of roll 23. This shaft also carries a gear 23a which rotates a gear 26a fastened to the shaft of roll 2d.

It will be noted that the friction segments 38 on picker roll 38 are normally positioned circumferentially slightly ahead of friction segments 37 on roll 35, in order to bend the'sheet I8 being picked to break the vacuum or adhesion between it and the next sheet, as described more fully under Operation.

Shaft 59 has a sprocket wheel 64 secured thereto, which drives a chain 66 connected to a smaller sprocket wheel 65 secured to shaft 43 which drives bevel gears 42 and rotates needle M of sheet retainer 39.

Gear 41 on main shaft 45 drives a single gear El secured to a shaft 88 journalled in frame I3. A cam track 59 is rotated by the shaft 68 and a roller II connected to a shaft '12 reciprocates a shoe I3 guided by a block 14 in which shaft 68 freely rotates. The shoe I3 is connected to a vertical rod 'ia which is connected to a reciprocable member 75 of perforator 25. The perforator utilized has a base plate Tl, through which perforating needles 1'8 are passed, thus perforating the date or batch number on the sheet. The base plate supports one edge of a sheet I8 during perforation. The perforator per se forms no part of our invention, being an article bought on the market, and no further description thereof is necessary.

Shaft 50 also rotates a gear BI, which, in turn, rotates a small gear 82 which rotates a main gear 83 for driving feed rolls SI and 32 through a gear train consisting of gears Il and B5, and small gears 86 and 87 secured to shafts 88 and 89, respectively, for each of the rolls 3I and 32. Gears SI and 92 secured to shafts 88 and 89, respectively, drive gears 63 and 84 secured to shafts 95 and 95, respectively, on the second of each set of rolls BI and 32. Thus, the rotation of one roll of each set of rolls 3| and 32 rotates the other roll. It will be noted that all gears and shafts so far described are rotated continuously.

Shaft 58 also rotates an intermittent type drive gear 9? having teeth 88 and a blanl; portion 33. Intermittent gear 27 rotates a smaller gear IBI having teeth Hi2 and a blank ortion I03 cooperating with blank 95 on gear 91' to impart intermittent rotary motion to a shaft liisecured to gear I56.

Shaft Iild has a gear IE5 secured thereto, which gear is intermittently rotated and imparts such intermittent motion to feed rolls 26 and 21 through a'gear train consisting of gear 66 which drives a gear ill! secured to a shaft I98 which drives roll 26, While a gear I09 secured to shaft I88 rotates a gear HI secured to shaft H2 which drives roll '23.

Operation A stack of sheet material if, such parchment paper for wrapping butter, for example, is placed in the magazine formed by the uprights I9 and horizontal rods 16. One lower edge of the steel: IT is supported by the rotating needle AI of the sheet retainer 32. As stated, the needle is rotated by bevel gears 42 and drills through several sheets of paper so that additional. resistance over merely frictional engagement of the sheets themselves is provided to preventmore than one sheet at a time to be fed'by the mechanism.

The picker rolls 35 and 35 are rotating continuously and since t e segment 38 is slightly advanced circumferentially relative to segment ST, segment 38 first picks the bottom sheet of material and bends it slightly to break the vacuum or adhesion between it and the adjacent sheet in stack I7. Segment 3'! on roll 35 then picks up the sheet and both rolls 35 and 36 start to feed toward the left in Figure l, tearing it from the needle 4|. Rolls 23 and 2 3 then pick up the sheet I8 and, since they are rotating continuously, feed the sheet toward the rolls 26 and 21. If the rolls 23 and 24 draw the sheet faster than the rolls 35 and 35 are traveling, the sheet is not torn because rolls 35 and 38 may rotate freely ahead on their bearings, and pins 55 and 62 disengage momentarily from pins 56 and 63, respectively, permitting the rolls 35 and 35 to frecwheel. Pins 56 and 53 then catch up with pins 55 and 62 to again drive the rolls 35 and 36 before another sheet is to be picked.

The distance between continuously operated feed rolls 23 and 24 and continuously operated feed rolls 3| is slightly greater than the length of the sheet, and intermittently operated rolls 28 and 2'! are so timed by gears 37 and IBI that as a sheet reaches rolls 26 and 27, the rolls are rotating, but stop when the sheet I8 is just short of the continuously operating feed rolls 3I. The sheet I8, however, has left continuously operat- 76ing feed rolls 23 and 24. The sheet I8, therefore, is stopped in its movement for a short interval of time.

The cam-track 69 is so timed with respect to the intermittent gears 91 and HH that the movable portion 16 of perforator 25 perforates the sheet while it is at rest. As soon as perforating is accomplished, rolls 26 and 21 again start to rotate and feed the sheet to the continuously operating pairs of feed rolls 3| and 32, whereupon the sheet I8 is fed to a position to wrap around the article 33 when moved by ram 34.

If desired, a microswitch (not shown) may be mounted adjacent feed rolls 23 and 24 to automatically throw out clutch 49 in the event more than one sheet of material starts to pass between rolls 23 and 24, thus stopping the mechanism until the defect is corrected.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of our sheet feeder mechanism without departing from the real spirit and purpose of our invention, and it is our intention to cover by our claims any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope without sacrificing any of the advantages thereof.

We claim as our invention:

1. Sheet feeding mechanism for feeding individual sheets of material to a wrapping station from a stack of sheet material comprising roller means for picking and moving a single sheet of material from said stack, a set of continuously operated engaging rollers for moving said single sheet away from said roller means after it has been conveyed to said .engaging rollers by said roller means, a second set of continuously operating engaging rollers to which said sheet is directed for moving said sheet to said wrapping station, said first and second sets of engaging rollers being spaced apart a greater distance than the length of said sheets, and intermittently operated roller means for moving said sheet interposed between said first and second sets of engaging rollers, whereby each individual sheet is stopped for a predetermined interval between the first and second sets of said engaging rollers.

2. Sheet feeding mechanism for feeding individual sheets of material to a wrapping station sheet away from said roller means after it has been conveyed to said engaging rollers by said roller means, a second set of continuously operating engaging rollers to which said sheet is directed for moving said sheet to said wrapping station, said first and second sets of engaging rollers being spaced apart a greater distance than the length of said sheets, intermittently operated roller means for moving said sheet interposed between said first and second sets of engaging rollers, whereby each individual sheet is stopped for a predetermined interval between the first and second sets of said engaging rollers, and timing means for stopping said intermittently operated roller means for a predetermined interval when said sheet is out of contact with both said first and second sets of continuously operated rollers.

3. Sheet feeding mechanism for feeding individual sheets of material to a wrapping station from a stack of sheet material comprising roller means for picking and moving a single sheet of material from said stack, a pair of engaging rollers for moving said single sheet away from firstand second pair of engaging rollers being spaced apart a greater distance than the length of said sheets, intermittently operated roller means for moving said sheet interposed between said first and second pairs of rollers, and timing means for stopping said intermittently operated roller means for a predetermined interval when said sheet is out of contact with both said first and second pairs of rollers.

4. Sheet feeding mechanism for feeding individual sheets of material to a wrapping station from a stack of sheet material including a support for said stack of sheet material, feeding means for a single sheet of said material, and picking means for delivering a single sheet of said material from the bottom of said stack to said feeding means, said picking means comprising two roller members spaced from each other in the direction of travel of said sheet, each roller member having a portion of its surface formed of a material having a relatively high coefficient of friction and adapted to contact said bottom sheet, a shaft for each of said roller members, bearings for said shaft, separate rotating members for driving each of said roller members, a driving element on each of said rotating members, and a driven element on each of said shafts. said driving and driven elements freely engaging with each other upon rotation of said rotating members, said rotating members being freely journalled on said shafts, a portion of the surface of said rollers being formed of a material having a relatively low coefficient of friction, the leading edge of the high coefficient portion of the roller member remote from said feeding means being slightly advanced circumferentially relative to the leading edge of the high coefficient portion of the roller member closest to said feeding means.

5. Sheet feeding mechanism for feeding individual sheets of material from a stack of sheet material to a wrapping station, including a support for said stack of sheet material, roller means for picking and moving a single sheet of said material at a time from the bottom of said stack, feed roller means for moving said single sheet away from said roller means, a second feed roller means to which said sheet is directed for moving said sheet to the wrapping station, a continuously operating main drive shaft, a plurality of gears driven by said main drive shaft for continuously rotating all of said roller'means, third feed roller means interposed between said first and second feed roller means, and means for intermittently operating said third feed roller means comprising intermittent gears driven from said main drive shaft.

6. Sheet feeding mechanism for feeding individual sheets of material from a stack of sheet material to a wrapping station, including a support for said stack of sheet material, roller means for picking and moving a single sheet of said material at a time from the bottom of said stack, feed roller means for moving said single sheet away from said roller means, a second feed roller means to which said sheet is directed for moving said sheet to the wrapping station, a continuously operating main drive shaft, a plurality of gears driven by said main drive shaft for continuously rotating all of said 7 8 :roller means Lhird iced roller mews intmtmssd UNIIED STATES. PAIEN'IKS between said firstand ,secqnd teed roller means. Number Name Date means for mtermittently operatingsaid, third 751,234 Han-is 1 1 1 feed roller means comprising intermittent gears 4 455 mo SeptQ30, 1 913 driven said main drive and clutch 5 1 570 592 mm I. I Jan. 19 1926 v ispmsed between said main drive shaft and all 1'629130 'stomk 1927 cf said 11725300 Last I Aug. 20, 1929 EARL RAPE Y 1,837,241 Van Buren Dec. 22, 1931 HAROLD 9 1,919,238 McCarthy July 25, 1933 1,971,962 Jones Aug. 28, 1934 REFERENCES CITED The following references are of \reca rd in the file of this patent:

2,108,800 Davidson Feb. 22, 1938 

